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THEY say love makes the world go round. But love isn't always easy - and for some, it's a damn hard fight.

Anyone who doubts that need look no further than the true story immortalised in the box-office hit The Vow (just released on video) about a husband who is forced to win back the heart of his wife after she suffers amnesia from a car accident.

Giles and Ros Mamet may not have had to undergo such a dramatic transition but they admit to having had more than their fair share of ups and downs.

The Mamets, who have been married for 44 years, said while they loved each other's different character traits, that's what had made them clash.

"Giles is a strong character and I'm more like a gentle person," Ros said.

"When you put those two different characteristics together, it brings tension and conflict."

The Mamets who live on the Sunshine Coast, met and fell in love in Melbourne and were married in 1968.

While both their families also lived in Melbourne, some family troubles had impacted on their relationship.

"It was a bit hard living so close to them," Ros said.

"We saw things that could be detrimental to our marriage and we made the decision to move to give it (their relationship) a chance to grow."

The couple fought a little and realised they needed help. They attended a Catholic marriage encounter weekend which consisted of communication exercises between the husband and wife.

"It helped us to discover where we weren't communicating so well," Ros said.

"We learnt about the sacrament of marriage.

"There were so many things that we weren't aware of and it opened doors for a relationship that I didn't know existed within our marriage.

"We had to work at it but it absolutely helped our marriage."

Giles also said the encounter weekend had helped his relationship and he had learnt about a much deeper insight of what marriage was and how to make it work.

"You learn what love is," he said.

"Love is not a feeling; it's a decision. We decided our relationship is worth fighting for.

"We can have arguments, not for me to be right or for Ros to be right, but fighting for the sake of our relationship."

Another couple who know what it's like to overcome obstacles in love is Corrie Wharton and Emily Luppino who have been in a long-distance relationship for almost five years.

The 23-year-old said he and Emily, 20, had been close family friends for as long as they could remember and while she lived in Perth and he lived in Golden Beach, they had decided to give their relationship a chance.

While long distance seems like a most difficult road to take, Corrie says he did it for love.

"I never expected to be in a long-distance relationship, let alone for almost five years," he said.

"When I met the girl of my dreams, the love of my life, that's when I decided to do long distance. It was that simple."

Corrie moved to Perth to be with Emily in 2010 and lived there for about six months before they packed their bags and travelled around Europe for a year and lived in Ireland for eight months.

Corrie said that on their return, they knew they needed to make a decision about where they wanted to be.

"When we arrived back home in Australia, we had talked about what we would do and it had come to the time were it was now way too hard for us to be in a long-distance relationship," he said.

Emily, who moved to the Sunshine Coast this month, said it was like her second home and she could not wait to finally begin her life together with Corrie.